Car dealers are not bad people.  Everyone deserves and needs to earn a profit.  Profits create jobs, allow for expansions, and drive our country’s economy.  These new informed consumers using the Internet exert pressure on the dealership to slash profits by lowering sale pricing.  With a 1.5% to 2.5% slash on the bottom line sales price, it is easy to understand how the Internet effects every dealership directly. 

These cuts are not simple cuts on the sticker.  Traditional revenue sources such as the finance office are seeing the effects of informed consumers, insurance products, dealer add-ons are getting more difficult to move.  Products and services that have the highest profit margins for the dealership.

In the late 1990’s dealerships acquired websites to take part in the action.  At this time, dealerships got mediocre websites creating little or no advantage for the dealership.  As time progressed it became apparent that these mediocre websites served little function if any.  Today, dealerships are frustrated and want websites that function, look professional, service the needs of their customers and inform potential consumers.

Every vehicle manufacture’s website nowadays offers the consumer information about vehicle options, etc.  As a result, most dealerships link directly to the manufacturer’s website.  An adverse effect often is created in that they have invested time, money, and effort attracting new and potential customers to there website simply to direct them elsewhere.  As a dealership owner once suggested to me “I want my customers to stay at my website, I don’t want them to leave and not come back”.  This is a real problem for dealerships where customers user their website to find and locate manufacturer websites. 

Custom built vehicles on manufacturer websites are the trend.  If dealership A sends a customer via a weblink from his website to the manufacturer’s website the customer may build a custom vehicle to his/her liking.  Upon completion of this vehicle building process, the website will inform the consumer where the closest match for that vehicle is located.  The frustration with this process is simple;  If the vehicle is located on another dealership’s lot, then the customer is very likely to visit that lot on there own and the dealership misses out on a sale, simply by directing them to the manufacturer’s website.

No longer is the local dealership the service hub for new car sales and service.  Informed consumers know how to get the best deal.  Information is available everywhere online.  No longer can a dealership rely on or expect traditional results from traditional marketing efforts.  Dealerships are redefining there role in the new car sales.  Dealerships are frustrated because they constantly have to “Pad The Deal” to close a sale.  Value added programs and customer service retention solutions are the key.  For dealerships, these programs cost money and effect the bottom line; all of which frustrates car dealerships that much more!

Dealerships also want their preowned inventory online, but get frustrated with the prospect of linking their inventory or accounting systems with the web.  Security and information protection prohibits used-vehicle inventory form being live to most dealerships.

Turnover and general lack of Internet knowledge with dealership employees creates a void with ongoing updates and active participation with their website.  As a result, dealerships get frustrated in having a website that is old, not up-to-date, on not functional.

Our package is broken down into key areas: design, database, management module, Hosting, New Car Lineup Module, and ongoing support.

The design of your website is custom, we visit the dealership, take hundreds of pictures, use your dealerships colors, etc...  Each site is designed around the management module to make it look and function professionally.  The site includes traditional pages as described below. 

• Career Center:  a listing of job openings and resume information for general submissions.

• Parts department listing hours and information about replacement parts, accessories, etc.

• Service department: containing maintenance schedules, schedule appointments page,  hours, service specials, and other service department information as needed

• Finance Center: including downloadable credit applications for meeting preparation, finance calculators, used-car values, etc...

• Preowned Inventory: that can be sorted by price, make, year, SUV, truck, car, recently sold, etc...  The site visitor may also submit a form upon looking at each car in the database.

• Contact information: for submitting questions, hours of operation, both electronic and traditional contact information.

• Dealership Information: such as hours, location map, history, etc.

• Body Shop information:  showcasing hours, gallery before and afters, etc...

• New Car lineup Module: featuring all aspects of the new vehicles via the Module imbedded and updated annually by us.

The database of the site will contain a database for authentication for updating and maintaining the website, employment postings for the career center, preowned inventory, and body shop before and afters images and cases.  The database is developed using MY/SQL for speed and functionality.  The database is managed via a Management Module.

The Management Module is a complete set of tools that allow for site updating.  When authenticated the user can add new vehicles, update existing vehicles and do the same for job openings.  The management module allows for the complete management of the body shop gallery.

Hosting of the website is done on our in-house Unix servers.  These servers have a 99.7% uptime guarantee.  We keep these servers up-to-date in perfect working condition.  Hosting provides complete Emil support of to 25 users, technical assistance and 24 hours support.

The New Car Lineup Module is a set of flash files that work together to showcase each new vehicle from your manufacturer.  This module is embedded within your website and is updated annually with the subscription service.  We update this module annually to showcase new vehicle releases.  As a result, your site stays up-to-date without linking to manufacturers websites.

Because our package uses PHP/MYSQL databases to power it’s application, all preowned inventory is updated via a Management Module.  once logged in your web manager or person may add a new vehicle to the inventory, update a current listing, add an employment opportunity, or remove a job posting.  The website’s key features are database driven allowing you to keep your website up-to-date.

Additionally, the New Car Lineup Module is also updated annually as the new cars are released.  This allows for your website to be up-to-date with the current models without the need for redesign, or high cost associated with redesigning the website.  This is part of the annual subscription service.

Training and ongoing support are part of our package.  We keep you up-to-date with new technologies that emerge.  We help you understand the Internet, how it works and are available at any time for onsite consultation.  We discuss with you other features that can add benefit to your site, how they will effect the site, etc...  We also provide annual traffic reports and keep management updated on how up-to-date your site is being kept.